Because Google won’t tell us exactly how their search algorithms work (come on already Google!), oftentimes the answer we get in SEO is “it depends.”
While this is an unsatisfying answer, there are many valid reasons for it – different websites, different niches, different audiences, different competition, etc.
But what if I told you there was a foolproof SEO strategy you could leverage to succeed in SEO regardless of your vertical or type of business?
That would be great, right?
Well, this is possible and the only thing you must do is… keep learning!
OK, so that might not be as cut and dry of a strategy as you were hoping for, but it’s true.
Ongoing education is essential to SEO success.
It’s how the top SEO professionals, and the brands they manage, stay on top.
SEO is an ever-changing industry and landscape. The same rule that applies to search rankings applies to SEO savvy: if you remain status quo, you’re losing ground.
What would your SEO strategy look like if you were still following best practices from 2010? 2000? 1996 when search engines rose to prominence?
You would have keyword-stuffed pages and be chasing blog comment links, and you would not be performing in search.
As an SEO, to avoid getting left behind you must constantly educate yourself to keep up with the changing times and best practices.
Just Look at 2019!
To understand how rapidly SEO changes and why continuous education is necessary, we don’t have to look any further than this current year.
In 2019 alone, we’ve seen major changes and important trends emerge that have a drastic and lasting impact on the SEO landscape. These trends include:
- The evolution of how Google measures E-A-T and its significance in terms of search rankings.
- And Google’s continuous push to answer queries within the SERP and the emergence of zero-result queries.
This is not the entire list of everything that happened in 2019, but it demonstrates how quickly things can move in SEO. Let’s take a quick look at each of these developments.
The Influence of E-A-T on Search & Our Understanding of It
Right off the bat, I want to explicitly state E-A-T is not a ranking factor.
However, this does not mean E-A-T doesn’t influence rankings, or rather, our understanding of and investment in E-A-T influences our ability to rank.
Ryan Jones explains this concept well in a tweet from Pubcon:
